For the Benefit
by westpoints
Summary: [complete] Years go by, and they're still horrible for each other.  But they have to keep meeting in order to remind themselves of that.  Kelpay, with Chadpay and KelsiOC
1. For the Tea

"For the Benefit"  
Chapter 1

by TehFuzzyPenguin

Disclaimer: I don't pretend to own any part of HSM

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---- 

According to everything psychological, biological, and literary, people change as they grow up. They mature, they get more levelheaded, they learn sympathy, or maybe the other way around. But they do change. In her own opinion, Kelsi had changed, at the very least.

Not that she could list any way she had now, with one Sharpay Evans leaning against the frame of her apartment door. She looked at the clock on the wall above the kitchen counter. "It's eleven," she blurted out.

Sharpay squinted at Kelsi, her eyes searching every corner of the smaller woman's face. "Huh. You don't _look _like you're 65," she said.

"I mean," Kelsi amended. "That I didn't expect you. Not at eleven at night."

Sharpay inspected her nails in the light from the hallway. "There's nothing to do in your city that doesn't involve some form of alcohol, and I can't get drunk tonight. And did you know? They frame the programs of all the shows they've ever performed in that nice theater of yours." It was her version of an explanation as to _how_ she knew where Kelsi lived.

Kelsi gave up and accepted her karma. This was probably for throwing the Frisbee at Bryan's head last month. She stepped aside and let Sharpay in. "Coffee?" she offered.

"You have any tea?"

"Green?"

"Something decaffeinated."

"Apple?"

Sharpay clapped her hands. "Bless you," she gushed. Kelsi sighed and turned to walk the several feet to the kitchen. Sharpay followed confidently, pausing to look in the refrigerator and check the cabinets under the stove. "Who cooks?" she asked, as Kelsi reached in a cupboard for teabags.

"Hmm?"

Sharpay pulled her head from the cabinet. "There are raw vegetables and organic eggs in your fridge. You have ten different kinds of frying pans and an omelet maker. You can't cook. Who does?"

"Those are pots," Kelsi said. "And, my husband."

"Your—" Sharpay paused mid-sentence to gauge the possibility of that statement. Kelsi, too disconcerted to bother reveling in Sharpay's shock, simply reviewed her words and found nothing wrong with them.

Someone coughed, and Sharpay resigned herself to the fact that Kelsi Nielsen had gotten married. Bryan shuffled out of the bedroom. He blinked in the light, and Sharpay caught Kelsi's eye, pointing to her own ring finger. Kelsi shrugged, and wiggled the fingers on her left hand surreptitiously.

"Um," Bryan articulated. He turned to Kelsi. "Is Sharpay Evans standing in my kitchen?" Sharpay began moving around, running her fingers over the countertop and looking at the coffeemaker with detached interest.

"Actually, she's opening the microwave." Sharpay slammed it shut. "She has a compulsion to open everything."

"Oh. Do you know her?"

Sharpay cut in, "We went to school together."

"Oh." Bryan licked his lips. "Um. Kels, if you could give me a few minutes, I don't think I can fully comprehend: Sharpay Evans is standing in my kitchen at night, and you know her."

Kelsi sighed. "Yes."

Bryan turned around and began walking back to their room. "I will worship her tomorrow, I promise. Love you."

"Love you—too," Kelsi called out. Sharpay raised an eyebrow, and Kelsi felt like she was in high school, silly and incompetent under Sharpay's gaze. She found a kettle and started boiling water. Finding something to say, Kelsi retorted, a minute too late, "Chad?"

"I fall in love with people." Sharpay shrugged and moved on to another subject. "Oh, you have to have heard. I'm doing a gay pride benefit thing tomorrow. A couple people who've been in _Wind Chill Factor _are getting together. Current cast, original cast, girls singing love songs to each other, guys making out on stage. It's all very gay and Broadway."

"In Seattle?" Kelsi asked, not wanting to pursue their earlier topic, either.

"Gay people are supposed to be happy. This city is not happy. I come to make it happy. I, with my Tony, and five others, two of who are practically adolescents." Despite herself, Kelsi giggled.

"Whom."

Sharpay looked at her. "Whom cares?"

Kelsi said, "I thought you friend Michelle got a Tony. Wasn't she in it with you?"

"Not _for _her role. Mine's for Naomi," said Sharpay, and pulled out a chair from Kelsi's table. "Anyway. I saw your name on one of the programs. And I thought I'd look you up." Kelsi experienced the wave of confusion that had taken over Bryan moments earlier.

"So you're—here."

"Very astute of you. I'm here." Sharpay threw back her head and laughed. "God, it's been a while," she said, when she straightened up. "You're married."

"So are you."

"Mm. But I don't know your deliciously disheveled husband." Sharpay leaned forward, and even though Kelsi had settled against the sink, she felt the urge to back away.

Kelsi said, "Bryan. He—he's just tired. He's..." She looked down shyly. "He's star struck."

"So were you," Sharpay stated. The kettle whistled, and Kelsi hurried to turn off the stove. Opening the cupboards, she retrieved two teacups, all the time aware of Sharpay's eyes on her every movement, memorizing the location of everything in her apartment. It had been a compulsion, and it comforted Kelsi that Sharpay, at least, hadn't fixed that.

She plunked a tea bag in each cup and set one in front of Sharpay, taking the other to her own side of the table. Sharpay looked at her cup and frowned amusedly. "Teacups, Nielsen?" Kelsi decided not to correct her about her last name.

"Yeah," she said nervously. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing." Sharpay rotated the cup by pushing on the handle with one finger. "I just didn't expect you to have cups made for the specific purpose of drinking tea, that's all."

"They're just like coffee cups."

"Yes. Except coffee cups can also be called mugs and used for milk, water, tea, and ill-advised paperweights." Sharpay gave hers one last jab, the murky water lapping dangerously close to the edge. "What can you do with a teacup besides put tea in it?"

Kelsi ventured, "Teach children a song?"

Sharpay snorted. "Clever."

Kelsi wondered why Sharpay did this. A very long time had passed since they'd last met, and she had moved here specifically to get away from Sharpay. Something like closure had happened. And now, now Sharpay Evans, as always, ruined all her plans, and acted like none of that mattered. Because she had a survival instinct, Kelsi didn't try to defend her need to stay away from the intoxicating actress. She just asked, "How's Chad?"

"Chad is...good. He's—well, his team whatever isn't doing that great, but he's having fun. We only see each other about...eight months out of the year. So, only when we're happy. It's a very nice way to live." Kelsi recognized her offhand tone of voice and suddenly realized that Sharpay still exuded that smell, that familiar Chanel No. 5 perfume.

"So how did you—I mean, I know in high school—"

"He was in Boston for a game." Sharpay closed her eyes. "We went to a party," she said. Her lips curled absentmindedly into a half-smile.

"How romantic," Kelsi said, sipping at her tea.

"It's not," Sharpay snapped. Her eyelids slid up a few millimeters, and she watched Kelsi for a few seconds until the smaller woman pursed her lips in a line of silence. "It's not," Sharpay said again, her voice sliding down into gentler tones. She closed her eyes again. "We went to a party, and it got late, and we had no place to go because I'm not about to ask my roommate to let me in at one in the morning, and he was going to stay with me." Her fingers slid around the edge of Kelsi's chipped teacup, dipping in occasionally. Kelsi wondered if the scalding heat hurt Sharpay, but not really.

"So?" Kelsi asked, when it was evident that Sharpay needed prompting.

Sharpay opened her eyes. "We slept in his car." Kelsi laughed, and after a moment, Sharpay joined in. "God," she screeched, "is that not the sketchiest thing you've ever heard?" As soon as the laugh appeared, it left.

Kelsi, unused to manipulating her reactions like Sharpay, shivered a bit with giggles. "So you decided to get married?"

"No." Sharpay pulled a face. "God, no. Marriage is—was always a weird idea. The whole...fidelity thing. As though—as though you could possibly only love one person. Like a promise. And I don't make promises." For an instant, they were friends, catching up after years and years and wondering how they had survived without each other. Sharpay could pretend that, and anything Sharpay had ever believed, Kelsi had believed as well. Kelsi thought about those long, long years in between.

"You got married," Kelsi pointed out, because she'd finally learned that hypocrisy wasn't a virtue.

"Turns out you file your taxes differently. And you get to visit each other in hospitals." Sharpay finally lifted the cup to her lips and drank. And once again, she'd asserted her position over Kelsi, and Kelsi felt diminished and small and stupid for actually having _teacups_, made specifically for drinking _tea_. "Besides," she said, when she'd swallowed, "so did you."

It wasn't a good point, but Kelsi followed it anyway. "Bryan's—Bryan." She'd never been very poetic.

"Just like I'm Sharpay," Sharpay said, and Kelsi understood her meaning but didn't reply to it. "I like Bryan," she said.

"He loves you," Kelsi said. "Well. Not _you_ you. Not to say that you as a person are unlovable. But I mean, if we ever wanted to do Broadway, he'd want you first. He loves—"

"He loves me," Sharpay said. Her eyes closed for an instant, and then she opened them. Kelsi was surprised at the change; suddenly, Sharpay seemed several hours more tired.

"Do you need to stay here?" she asked, somewhat concerned.

"No." Sharpay sighed. "No, I have a hotel room. I just—I just get tired sometimes."

"You should sleep," Kelsi advised. "You have a show tomorrow."

"I have a show tomorrow night," Sharpay corrected. "I saw your name. I missed you. I had rehearsal all day. I am tired and I'm sitting in your kitchen, drinking not-too-bad tea. It's worth a late morning." She rubbed her eyes, smearing eyeliner on her fingers. "Damn. Anyway. Here I am. Aren't you happy?"

Kelsi paused. No, she thought, she wasn't. She wasn't mad, or sad, or anything. "I—" It was obvious that Sharpay didn't care about the true answer to her question, so Kelsi said, "You should stay. Bryan would love to meet you."

"Yes. Bryan." Sharpay smiled. Draining the tea from her cup, she stood and said, "I need to get back to my hotel and the mint on my pillow. Thanks for the tea."

Kelsi stood with her because good manners manipulated her muscles more than force of will. "It was nice seeing you," she managed.

"Oh, something about _her_," Sharpay said. Stopping at the door, she turned, leaned on the doorjamb like she had so many times before. "I'd like it if you came to the show tomorrow. We could—well, Bryan can come to dinner with us." She flipped her hair and Kelsi's fingers twitched in a long-dormant reflex. "Actually," Sharpay said in an off-hand, totally planned way, "Call me. In the afternoon. And we can...relax before the show."

"Relax?"

Sharpay laughed and mouthed, "Relax."

Kelsi laughed along weakly, and Sharpay showed herself out without any hint of the awkwardness that usually came when people showed themselves out. Figures.

It suddenly occurred to her that she didn't have, and had never had, Sharpay's number.

----

The phone rang at three in the afternoon. Kelsi removed her earbuds when Bryan burst into their office, his eyes wide. "What?" she asked.

"Sharpay Evans is on my phone." Kelsi jumped, but not for the same reason that Bryan was so excited. "Sharpay Evans is on my phone and she is inviting us to dinner after her benefit thing."

"Oh," Kelsi breathed. "Oh, Bryan, that's great!"

"Sharpay Evans is on my phone!" Bryan said one last time, and handed the phone to Kelsi. "It's actually for you," he explained, somewhat sheepishly, and Kelsi smiled.

"Go get ready for your dream date," she said. Bryan grinned, and Kelsi thought about the calm, witty man she'd met when she first moved to Seattle, and wondered if he'd come back when Sharpay left.

Bringing the phone to her ear, she heard Sharpay saying, "—look, just use my shower, then, it's not like I'm going to walk in and rape you."

"What?"

"What?"

"Oh. Hello, Kelsi." Sharpay's voice faded as she probably covered the phone and said, "It's the exact same as yours!" Kelsi jumped as Sharpay's voice returned to its normal clarity next to her ear. "Sorry," she said. "Michelle broke her shower."

Something echoed in the background. Kelsi assumed it was Michelle, because then Sharpay yelled, "I'm on the phone!" And then to Kelsi again, "Sorry, sorry. Michelle broke her shower and has to use mine. How are you?"

"You saw me yesterday," Kelsi said dryly.

"Fine, yes," Sharpay waved aside in her voice. "I know I told you to call me, but you don't have my number so I'm inviting you now. Come to the hotel and say hello to many Broadway stars and two teenagers." Someone mumbled something in the background, and Sharpay repeated the mumbling. "And Michelle wants hotdogs. Do they sell hotdogs in your city?"

Kelsi paused. "Um," she said.

"Whatever—Michelle, go take the fucking shower! Whatever. Come over. It'll be a wild party." Sharpay gave the name of her hotel and her room number, and hung up without a goodbye.

Kelsi stared at the phone for a minute before turning off her iPod completely and leaving the office. She looked around for Bryan, and found him once again deliciously disheveled, trying to figure out what to wear.

He looked up from their drawers when she entered the room. "Are we allowed to go to this thing tonight?" he asked nervously.

"Darling," Kelsi said, and frowned at Sharpay's term of endearment. "Bryan," she amended, "we were invited."

"But we're not gay," Bryan pointed out unnecessarily. Kelsi kissed him.

"Yes. But we work with gay people all the time. We're honorary gays." Kelsi frowned at the drawers with Bryan, because neither of them was very good at fashion choices.

"Like Jews?" Bryan asked with a teasing smile.

"Yes," Kelsi said, "Just like those gay, singing, dancing Jews." She pointed to a blue argyle patterned tie, something so atrocious that even she knew it had to go. "Not that. And relax. It's just Sharpay." Bryan snorted, and she realized how pretentious it sounded. "She eats hotdogs." Bryan tried not to smile. "She wants to know if Seattle has hotdog stands."

"Is that why she called?"

"She wants to see me before the show. Um. And maybe we'll go out and get hotdogs." Bryan looked worried. "Me. You don't have to come."

"Good," he said, and went back to contemplating his socks.

Kelsi smiled and watched him for a few more minutes before leaving. On her way to the Alexis hotel, she wondered, for an instant, exactly what she was getting herself into.

----

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**Author's Note:  
**Thus ends part one of my massive Kelpay fic that was required according to my fanon (in Lines Letters Words Stories Life, they meet again long after the events in Clean Getaway). Just so you know, I'm not making fun of the Jews, I'm making fun of the fact that some people (like me) consider themselves honorary Jews because they participate in many Jewish customs (like Yom Kippur).

review?


	2. For the Pizza

"For the Benefit"  
Chapter 2

by TehFuzzyPenguin

Disclaimer: I own no part of Disney's High School Musical

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---- 

Steam drifted from the room when Sharpay, dressed in a grey shirt and jeans, opened her door. She grimaced apologetically at Kelsi and said, "Michelle finally finished." A light brown flash appeared next to Sharpay's face, and Kelsi assumed it was Michelle with wet hair, the rest of her body behind the wall.

"Hi," said Michelle, after looking Kelsi up and down. "This one's cute," she said to Sharpay.

"And married," Sharpay said proudly. "Now go entertain the baby Naomi." Michelle saluted, and her head disappeared from view. Kelsi assumed they had adjoining rooms. Sharpay smiled tightly.

"Is that okay?" Kelsi asked. "I mean, I don't mind Michelle—I mean..."

"She loves babysitting. I'm the antisocial older sister." Sharpay shrugged. "If I can't drink with them, what's the point?"

"Must not be one." Sharpay smiled, a real, amused smile, and Kelsi felt something in her chest go thump. Sharpay stepped to the side. "Come on in." She didn't look to see if Kelsi was following, heading instead directly for the king-sized bed. Standing at the foot of it, Sharpay closed her eyes, exhaled completely, and fell backwards on the floral covers. "Mm," she said.

"This is your room?" Kelsi asked. It would have looked like a penthouse suite, were it not for the unfortunate color scheme and overuse of flowers. Yellow, dying flowers. On every piece of upholstery possible.

"They treat me well," Sharpay murmured. "This mattress is orgasmic." She wiggled herself backwards until her feet could find leverage on the bed, and then pushed herself to lean back against the headboard. "Try it."

"Sharpay."

Sharpay burrowed deeper into the mattress. "Mm," she moaned. Kelsi licked her lips, pressed her nails into her palms, and strode quickly to the bed, wincing when the door slammed shut behind her.

Sharpay wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. "Darling, I have faith in Bryan, but really."

Kelsi frowned, turned around, and flopped back on the bed. "Oh god," she breathed.

"Mmhmm." Sharpay patted the spot next to her. "Get up here."

"Oh god," Kelsi said again. She struggled to move. "This is almost ridiculous." Sharpay made an impatient sound. "It's like...five feather mattresses floating on an ocean." She wiggled backwards as well, with less success, and ended up with her head on the pillows. "Oh my god."

Sharpay stretched luxuriously, her elbows popping as she settled back down, her right arm coming to rest on the other side of Kelsi. Kelsi took the hint and laid her head under Sharpay's chin. "God," Sharpay said. "It's been a while."

"Sure." Kelsi was still wrapped up in the comfort of the bed and too contented to try to fight Sharpay's command over her. This time, she decided, was her choice. Completely her choice. And that was different from the years before.

"You know, I really don't feel like doing anything now but watching reruns of Oprah and taking a nap." Sharpay rubbed her nose with her free hand. Her voice vibrated through her ribs and into Kelsi's skull.

"I don't watch Oprah," Kelsi said defensively.

"Neither do I," Sharpay said, and laughed. "God, I'm old."

"You're 38. You still have thirty years till you're Bernadette Peters. Don't you want to be Bernadette Peters?"

"No."

"No? What about Kristin Chenoweth?"

"I want to be Sharpay Evans."

"You are Sharpay Evans," Kelsi said mildly. "You've melted my husband's brain."

"No," Sharpay said. "No, no," she repeated, irritated. "I mean, I don't want to be like anyone. As much as I love Kristin. I want to be me. And thirty years from now, I don't want anyone saying 'Oh, there's the next Sharpay Evans.' I'm me. I'm the only me."

Kelsi sighed. All of Sharpay's words came through her ribs into Kelsi's jaw, and she sort of wished Sharpay hadn't stopped talking. "What are you going to do when you get to Bernadette Peters, though?"

"I'll do voiceovers," Sharpay said. "For feminine hygiene products and the stupid Zales commercial."

"Are there voiceovers in Zales commercials? I thought it was just music."

"I will make Zales commercials." Sharpay giggled. "Then I'll be Julia Murney."

"Who?"

"Exactly. There's several Kristin Chenoweths, another aging Bernadette, and a balls-to-the-walls Sutton, but only one Cocktober Julia." Kelsi coughed. Sharpay smirked and repeated, "Cocktober." Kelsi recovered. She inhaled Sharpay's Chanel No. 5 and closed her eyes, matching her breathing to the up and down of Sharpay's ribs. This was what it should have been, she thought. Lying around all day talking about theater and Oprah. Kelsi wondered briefly if her life would have turned out differently with this kind of Sharpay relationship.

"Time?" Kelsi mumbled.

"Four-ish. I'll need to get down to the theater soon. It's a nice theater."

"Good acoustics," Kelsi agreed.

"Kinda makes me wish I could've toured here."

"You were too busy winning a Tony. Hey, Naomi."

"Hey." Sharpay snapped her teeth. "_Wind Chill Factor._ The trip of my life. It's the _Wicked_ of this generation."

"I thought _Wicked_ was the _Wicked_ of our generation," Kelsi said.

"Darling. This is no longer our generation." Sharpay's fingers moved in distracting patterns through Kelsi's hair. "We had the FCC and Britney Spears and the legalization of marijuana and gay almost-marriage. Clearly, no longer relevant issues."

"Except for the gay."

"Except for the gay," Sharpay conceded. "That's still going on. But really, we need to make way for bigger, better things. Four-toed babies and the like. Let the children fight for the revolution." Something rumbled outside the room, and Sharpay looked up, frowning. The sound of dry rice falling together filled the air. Sharpay got up and looked out the window.

"Hey, it's raining."

"Really? In Seattle?" Sharpay turned around and looked excitedly at Kelsi.

"Come make out in the rain with me, Kelsi."

Kelsi tried to find the motivation to rise from the bed. She came up with fistfuls of hay and no needle. "Sharpay...It's raining. It's cold. We will get pneumonia."

"It's wet. It feels good. You will get to kiss me."

Kelsi swallowed. "You can kiss me here."

"Yes. Or I can kiss you outside. I'm going outside." Kelsi contemplated her next move. Adultery was clearly not an issue with Sharpay, who had probably sat Chad down on their first date and explained the whole long, silly idea of falling in love with people. It bothered her that Sharpay might have done so, but she thought it anyway. Bryan had the whole idea of Great Love. The one person you belong with, the one person you need more than anything else in the world. As long as you still have that Great Love, Bryan said, then nothing else you did mattered. It was very _Rent_-like of him, in a Maureen sort of way.

Kelsi didn't know what she believed in, so she pushed herself up with some difficulty and went out to the balcony for Sharpay.

"You know," she said over the sound of the rain, "you promised me that I would meet Broadway stars."

"You met Michelle," Sharpay said flippantly. Her hair was already plastered to her head, bangs dripping rivulets over her eyes. The grey long-sleeved shirt she wore crinkled against her arms. Kelsi was beginning to regret her white t-shirt. "Besides. We want to go out for dinner. Where can we go?"

Kelsi shivered, and Sharpay held out her thin arms, beckoning her. Kelsi took the safe route and backed herself into Sharpay's hug. "What kind of food do you want?"

"Something not ethnic," Sharpay said. "The babies are sheltered. We can't upset their stomachs."

"How old are they really?"

Sharpay breathed against Kelsi's ear. "One still needs a giant X when she goes to clubs."

"How precious." Kelsi shivered again, but this time not from the cold. Raindrops gathered on her eyelashes, and she squeezed her eyes shut to shed them. She imagined they looked like tears.

"Hey. What's going on in that crazy writer head of yours?" Kelsi stared out into the parking lot.

"It just feels so unreal."

"It's magical," Sharpay said gleefully. "You should write a play about us. Or a musical. But hopefully not a campy, _Grease_-like one. Or a _Spring Awakening_."

Kelsi relaxed a little more in Sharpay's embrace. "I don't think I'd like to," she said. She hoped it came off as wistful and not defiant.

"Oh dear, why not?"

"Because—" Kelsi stopped. Sharpay dropped her head even lower, her hair dripping water down Kelsi's back. Her nose bumped below Kelsi's ear. Kelsi imagined that Sharpay whispered something, but maybe it was just her neck itching. "Because then I'd have to share us. And you've made me a selfish kind of person." She could _feel_ Sharpay's smile against her skin.

"Fair enough," Sharpay said, and kissed Kelsi's jaw. Kelsi swallowed nervously and held still. "I'm not very fond of sharing either," Sharpay continued, pressing her lips against the shell of Kelsi's ear.

"We're going to get sick," Kelsi finally found the voice to say. She turned her head to repeat herself, because the rain had a habit of drowning out sounds, and met, instead, Sharpay's mouth, cold lips and warm tongue colliding in the slick water. Every other part of her face felt numb except her lips, so Kelsi focused solely on those. When Sharpay pulled away for a breath, Kelsi followed her, until the angle became fatal. "Um," she said. Past the parking lot was downtown Seattle, she saw, and too many cars going back and forth. Above them, an even grey stretched out and drenched everything.

Sharpay kissed her again. Kelsi opened her mouth in response and focused on breathing in through her nose. Their teeth clicked, and Kelsi lowered her head, fighting the urge to laugh.

She turned around inside Sharpay's arms and laid her head on a sodden shoulder. "I feel like Ilsa," she said.

"I am not Rick," Sharpay replied immediately, and Kelsi did laugh. She watched the rain slip down the railings of the balcony and marveled at how much the city seemed to blur. It felt like the entire world was melting, and she wondered how she'd missed it before.

Someone shouted up at them, and Sharpay turned her head to look over the railing. "What?" she shouted back. Kelsi closed her eyes.

"I don't know," Sharpay kept yelling. "She's up here with me. Yes, that's her. Can she borrow your coat? What? Okay. All right, we'll change." She nudged Kelsi. "Hey, come on. Michelle and company want hotdogs. We need to change, we're going to the theater right afterwards."

"I don't have any clothes," Kelsi mumbled. Her mouth felt numb after the rain cooled it from Sharpay's kisses.

"I know. Wear mine. You can use Michelle's coat. Your value will double." Sharpay shuffled them to the balcony door. "It'll be like Barbie, only better."

"You're skinny."

"You're almost anorexic."

"I don't wear underwear."

"How kinky. Neither do I. Come on."

Kelsi peeled off her clothes and dried herself with a towel, modesty useless when Sharpay was already envisioning her clothed. "You know," Kelsi said, her thoughts more coherent now that her brain was heated, "sometimes I think you have multiple personalities."

"That would mean I didn't know about the other personalities," Sharpay retorted.

"Well, then, sometimes I think you put on a lot of acts."

"Yes. I am an actress." Sharpay pulled a dress over Kelsi's head and adjusted it. "This'll do. I'll carry the heels with me." They retrieved Michelle's coat, which was a little long, and went downstairs to meet Michelle and four other people.

A small, slight girl with short black hair asked, "What were you doing on the balcony?"

"Playing Ingrid and Humphrey," Sharpay answered. Michelle winked, and Sharpay tilted her head in annoyance.

"Who?" the girl asked. Sharpay looked at Kelsi.

"God," she said. "Why do I live?"

----

Bryan gaped at her outfit. "Um," he said. "Is that yours?"

"No. We can't damage it, sad to say," Kelsi said, and he shuddered in a definitely Cocktober sense. "It's Sharpay's."

"Are we on a first-name basis with Sharpay?"

"I'm wearing her clothes," Kelsi said. "We're backstage. Now they want to eat. I think honorifics will just get in the way."

Michelle walked up with the small, Ingrid Bergman-deprived girl on her back. "The little one's tired," she whispered. "Sharpay wants to know where we're going." She saw Bryan. "Hi. I'm Michelle." She worked her elbow under the girl's knee and offered her hand. "Sorry about the awkward position." Bryan, who could care less if Michelle had no teeth and a clubfoot, tactfully ignored the youngest Naomi and shook the hand.

Sharpay herself appeared in the hallway, wiping her face with a towel and dressed relatively down. She took in Bryan's tuxedo and solid blue tie, and raised her eyebrows in approval. "I like him even more," she said to Kelsi. "Hi. Sharpay Evans." Pleasantries were exchanged. "Logan and Josh and um...um...god, Michelle, help me."

"Sean," Michelle supplied. "The new Kenny."

"Are coming. Where are we going?"

Kelsi looked at Bryan, who returned her gaze anxiously. "Pizza?" he asked.

"Pizza," Kelsi said.

"Pizza," Sharpay confirmed.

"Pizza!" Michelle screamed, and dropped the girl. "Come on, Hannah! We're getting pizza!"

"We're getting pizza?" Hannah stumbled to her feet. "I like pizza."

Logan, Josh, and Sean emerged from one dressing room, though Kelsi couldn't tell which was which. Or who was who. One with curly brown hair and ridiculously symmetrical bone structure said, "Is Hannah freaking out over pizza?"

"We're getting pizza," Sharpay explained. "The natives are taking us." She turned to Bryan and smiled. Kelsi tried not to read a rejection in it. "Oh. Guys. This is Bryan, Kelsi's husband. He directs plays when we're not taking his theater." Perfect Face boy waved. "How are we getting there?"

"Getting where?" Michelle asked.

Bryan said, "I can take five."

Sharpay said, "I can take six. And there's nine of us. Can I follow you?" Bryan shrugged, and something like car arrangements were thought out. Somehow, Kelsi ended up with Sharpay and Michelle and Hannah in one car. "In case we get lost," Sharpay had explained.

Finelli's was a nice place for those who appreciated fresh toppings, but had an actor's salary. Or, at least, a regional actor's salary; Kelsi gripped the door handle of Sharpay's pretty little Cadillac and pretended that it didn't have surround-sound speakers and a glass roof.

Because Bryan and Kelsi knew the manager well, they got seated promptly, and all the New York people quickly fell into making their own pizza. Sharpay wanted white, which here included feta cheese and tomatoes. Michelle wanted sausage _with_ sauce, thanks, and green peppers. Hannah and Perfect Face boy (Kelsi was pretty sure it was Sean, because they both looked about thirteen) both liked basic pepperoni, and Logan and Josh thought about having a wings-eating contest.

The waitress, not knowing exactly who they were, came up with a sunny smile and not enough paper. "Hi," Sharpay said. "Okay. We'll have a large pizza, half white with ham and a quarter of that with olives. I mean extra-large." She turned to consult with Michelle. "Yes. Extra-large. And then the other half will be normal, with sausage and green peppers, and a quarter of that with pepperoni, preferably not the quarter touching the one with the olives. And then they want wings. Lots and lots of wings."

She waited politely for the harried woman, who was probably reaching the end of her shift, to stop writing. "And I need another Coke," Sharpay said sweetly. "Thanks!"

"You have water," Michelle chastised.

"Yes. But Bryan's running low. And she didn't even look twice at him." Sharpay flicked her eyes between their glasses on the table.

"Oh look, Sharpay," Michelle pointed out, her left shoulder leaning against Hannah's. "They have the nice mints."

"The what?"

"Mints. The good kind." Michelle shrugged and pushed Hannah away to point. "The good kind," she said again.

Logan was talking about sports with Josh, having been in show business long enough to know how to fake interest in other subjects besides theater. Sean, being less experienced, interjected once: "I couldn't see either of you at a basketball game."

Logan looked at him. "Sean," he said gently, "the Mets are a baseball team." Sharpay snorted into her water and had to cough for several minutes.

Josh indicated Bryan with his head. "Hey," he said, his speaking voice almost too deep for the notes he could sing. "You a Mariners fan?"

Bryan raised his eyebrows. "Seahawks, but I'm not a baseball person." Josh nodded in understanding, and then the wings came.

"Oh god, man," he said. "Logan, you are going to rue this day."

"Right."

"Start ruing!"

Sharpay's phone vibrated, and she pulled it out, frowning at the display. Shrugging, she shoved it back in her coat pocket. Kelsi looked at her quizzically. "I'll take it later," Sharpay said.

Kelsi watched with Bryan as Logan and Josh started in on their wings. It was gruesome in a testosterone way, which Kelsi supposed would always happen with men, no matter how effeminate they might be (and Logan and Josh weren't very, though Sean looked five shades of disgusted). Sharpay, Michelle, and Hannah looked nonplussed at the scene, and after about twenty wings each, the most complicated pizza known to mankind had arrived.

"Holy god," Sharpay muttered. "Do they flash bake these things?" Kelsi shrugged, and helped Hannah try to extract the first piece without stretching the cheese out too much.

"Oh look," Michelle said.

"What?"

"They do the you and Chad thing!" Kelsi and Bryan looked up from their plates, aware that Michelle was talking about them.

"The what thing?" Sharpay asked boredly.

"She gives him her olives and he gives her his tomatoes."

"How cute," said Sharpay, and she cut into her own slice with a fork and knife.

Logan, on the other side of Sharpay, wiped his mouth with his napkin and blew on his fingers. "God," he said. "God, I love wings, but I think my fingerprints are gone."

"Giving up?" Josh asked.

"Oh you only wish."

Before ordering dessert, Sharpay had downed three slices of pizza and made a small amount of bets on Josh and Logan. She got up, then, and Kelsi looked after her inquiringly. Bryan was talking with Michelle, who was laughing at something he'd said.

"I need to call Chad," she explained. Kelsi nodded, and returned her attention to Bryan, who was recounting the many different things meta-theater could do now, with several more styles soon to become cliché.

The dessert menu came, and after they'd eaten, Kelsi went to find Sharpay. Sharpay was standing outside, gripping her phone and looking neutrally up at the sky.

"Hey," said Kelsi.

"Darling." Sharpay turned her head and smiled briefly. "Chad's fine. He's mad that the Red Sox beat the Yankees, though. How's Hannah?"

"Awake." Sharpay nodded.

"It's nice to know that your role is being played by someone who can stay up past midnight. How's Bryan?"

"About to die from the orgy of showbiz." Kelsi hesitated, and then stepped closer, putting her hand on Sharpay's arm. "Thanks. For this, I mean. It really—thanks."

"I do what I can for my people," Sharpay said. She reached around awkwardly and patted Kelsi's hand.

Kelsi looked up with her. "Are you a Yankee or Red Sox fan?" she asked.

"I'm a Mets fan."

"That's not even in the same league."

"That's the best part." Sharpay smiled again. "I'm surprised you know that, Nielsen." She looked down at Kelsi's hand, and her lips curved even higher. "Hey," she said, "if we leave now, we won't have to pay."

The door opened behind them, and Kelsi turned. Hannah looked at them with wide eyes. "Michelle says that you two better come in and pay for your food," she reported.

Sharpay tilted her head back and laughed into the Seattle night.

----

* * *

Author's Notes: 

Those of you who read **A Lifetime of Mean Reds**, a joint fic between me and Jen under **Penguin-Vitamin**, should recognize Michelle and Logan. Because I like to recycle my OC's. The movie that Hannah's never seen is _Casablanca_. Also, a Julia Murney shoutout because she's awesome. Contact me via review if you want a link to her Cocktober story.

which is to say, review, please!


	3. For the Scandal

"For the Benefit"  
Chapter 3

by TehFuzzyPenguin

Disclaimer: Never have, and never will, pretend that any part of HSM is legally manipulable by me.

* * *

---- 

Because Kelsi's car was still at the hotel, Bryan dropped off the rest of the singers at the theater, so Logan could drive, and she caught a ride with Sharpay, sitting in the backseat while Michelle fiddled with the stereo. "Wanna sing?" she asked.

Sharpay shrugged. "My voice isn't fantastic right now," she said. "That last one killed me."

Michelle rolled her finger around Sharpay's iPod. "Wanna sing some Sondheim?"

" 'Chelle. How much Red Bull did you drink?"

"None," she said. "It's amazing." Sharpay grunted. They got to the hotel, and Michelle jumped out, racing to Logan's car as it pulled up, dragging Hannah out of it and prancing up to the hotel. Sharpay watched her go.

"Hey. Move over," she said, when everyone had disappeared inside, and climbed over into the backseat with Kelsi. "I think Michelle has entirely too much energy for someone pushing 40," she muttered darkly, and Kelsi nodded. Slivers of light in the parking lot cast eerie shadows on the soft fabric. Kelsi traced her finger around the shades of Sharpay's head.

"It was nice seeing you," Kelsi said.

Sharpay ignored that and wrapped her arms around Kelsi's shoulders. "Let's sleep in the car," she suggested, and pulled Kelsi back until they lay side by side on the wide seat. Kelsi almost wanted to roll away, but there wasn't room.

"Sharpay. How are we going to explain this to everyone else?"

"I lost my key."

"You're holding it." Sharpay opened the door and dropped the card. "Now it's just in the parking lot, outside the car."

"No, it's in a deep, dark abyss. At the bottom of the ocean. Shame." She smiled. "Come on, Kelsi. Just lie here for a little while. We don't have to do anything R-rated." Sharpay flopped her arm over Kelsi's waist and rested her cheek against her shoulder blade. "Just for a little while," she said.

Kelsi relaxed into the seat, trying not to roll too far back into Sharpay. Sharpay was warm and intoxicating, and her back burned where Sharpay touched her. The vertebrae in her neck ached. She wished she was seventeen again, only with this Sharpay and this feeling of non-obligation.

"What star is that?" she asked sleepily. Sharpay shifted so she could see through the glass roof.

"Which one?"

"That one," Kelsi said.

"Me," Sharpay answered. "God, Nielsen, there's tons of stars out there, stop being so whimsical."

"I'm not usually," Kelsi said in defense.

"I know, I know." Sharpay drummed her fingers against Kelsi's arm. "The North Star?"

"The real North Star isn't really that bright," Kelsi pointed out.

"Obviously, you're asking the wrong person."

"Mm." Kelsi felt the seconds stretch into minutes and hours and days, and she wondered how karma let her meet Sharpay more than once in her lifetime.

"Remember Gabriella?" Sharpay asked superficially.

"Sure."

"Her and Troy are married now."

"She."

"What?"

Kelsi let all the air out of her lungs. "She and Troy."

"Whom cares? Anyway. They're married, and Gabriella's teaching high school biology. Troy's the PE director at the same school. In Texas. Evidently, there's no place like almost home." Kelsi had nothing to say to that, so she just hummed in bored agreement.

Just as she started to get used to the idea of sleeping in a car, specks flattened against the roof, and Sharpay squinted. "Oh my god, is it raining _again_? There aren't any clouds! How is that even chemically possible?" Kelsi felt the sudden loss of heat as Sharpay sat up and inspected the glass carefully. "Ugh," she said, "it _is _raining. Come on, Nielsen, we have to go inside."

Kelsi rolled over and did fall off the seat. "Um." Sharpay reached down and grabbed one limp wrist. "I thought we were going to spend the whole night in here."

"Yes, well, now it's raining, and it will get cold and nasty in the car, so we're miraculously now in a parking lot instead of a deep abyss so get up and let's go _inside_."

Sharpay opened the door with no preamble and stretched out her other hand to find her room key. Through a series of sliding and awkward maneuvering, she managed to get her feet off the seat without stepping on Kelsi and stepped out of the car. She stood up and tugged, completely unsympathetic to Kelsi's position on her back.

"Come on, Kelsi, let's go."

"I can go home, you know. You don't have to spend—"

"Stop trying to get out of this and get up, come on."

Kelsi decided that Sharpay had just as much energy as Michelle, and painfully rolled onto her knees, eventually making it out of the car on two feet and nothing else as well. Sharpay slammed the door behind her and pulled her all the way to the hotel lobby.

----

Kelsi collapsed backwards onto Sharpay's bed without hesitation and groaned. She felt exhausted, mentally and physically, and Sharpay's dress clung to her skin in wet clumps. It was slightly uncomfortable, but it was Sharpay's, so she let that go.

Sharpay dropped her key on the bedside table and sat down at the desk, flipping through the hotel's Welcome! binder. Kelsi, a wave of lethargy crashing over her prone body, peered through barely-parted eyelashes at her.

"You want to get dessert?" Sharpay asked.

"Didn't you get any?"

"Darling, I didn't get to order."

"Sharpay, I no longer have the metabolism of a ten-year-old."

Sharpay held up a model shot of tiramisu and said, "What's your point?" Kelsi regarded the laminated cardboard with reluctant interest. "Yes?" Kelsi groaned and let her head hit the bed again. "I thought so." She picked up the phone and called room service.

Only Sharpay could entice her into more dessert; Kelsi wasn't a sweets person to being with. Kelsi resolved that she wouldn't eat any of the tiramisu just for spite. "I'm not going to eat any," she said.

Sharpay sighed. "You're being defiant," she drawled. "It suits you better when it's rational." Kelsi shrugged and closed her eyes, determined to sleep before room service came. Sharpay said something, but it sounded distant and blurred. Mentally exhausted, Kelsi opened her eyes and focused back on Sharpay. "Tell me about Bryan," Sharpay repeated.

"He's Bryan," Kelsi said quickly, and laid a hand over her eyes. She suddenly didn't feel like talking to the woman who was keeping her from her husband right now.

"Kelsi."

"He's a member of the male species. He can cook. He gets a vein in his forehead when he yells. He's ridiculously accepting, I'm surprised people don't walk all over him. He's a director. That's all."

Bryan's favorite book was _The Things They Carried_. His hair looked cute in a teenage way in the mornings. He asked questions once and didn't press for answers. He took a long time to judge people. He was passionate in a widespread way. He made her smile when she thought about him, and as Kelsi smiled to herself, she felt a tired, irrational anger well up against the person who might take it all away.

"Nielsen, I am not your mother—"

"Look, is it too quiet for you?" Kelsi snapped. "Is it? Was it a little too lonely for you here in this hotel, relatively unknown and lost, that you have to come ruin my week?" Her head spun, but she sat up anyway and tried to focus on Sharpay like she had before, but couldn't quite hack it. "I came here, Sharpay, many, many years ago because _you_ weren't here, because _you_ don't tour, because it's a new fucking start." Sharpay turned her head completely from the phone to look fully at Kelsi, who swallowed hard before plunging on:

"Okay? And then you come along, when we're old and crippled, with your stupid trophy and your stupid gay pride, and your stupid, stupid ennui, and you pretend that it's _okay_ that you dropped me, you pretend it's _okay_ that it's been many, many years, and you should be, because I'm okay with all that. I am, I really am, but dammit, Sharpay, I am _so fucking sick_ of being strung along, and now I sound like a sappy Lifetime movie. Fantastic."

Sharpay stared at her for a few seconds beyond comfortable, and then stood up. Kelsi jumped. Sharpay frowned, reaching out hesitantly. "You should probably get out of these clothes." Kelsi struggled to back up on the bed, but the wretched upholstery skidded against the fabric of her dress.

"Oh suck it up," Sharpay said with her usual impatience, "I'm not going to bite you. You're getting the bed soaked, though, so get naked and go take a shower." She turned abruptly and walked to the bathroom. "Michelle left a few towels, and there's a robe. My robe, actually, but I'm fine."

"I really don't think I need to stay here any longer."

"Then go take a shower and give me my dress back before you leave." Sharpay leaned backwards out of bathroom, her hands holding onto the door frame, and Kelsi remembered why she hadn't left before this.

Retreating back into her meek shell, Kelsi ventured, "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Hmm?"

"About...about what I just said? You—you can't just act like that just didn't happen." She felt a tendril of annoyance flare again.

"Oh, it did," Sharpay said. "I just thought that maybe _you'd_ like to pretend that your sappy Lifetime moment didn't happen, so I'm making it easier for you." She stalked quickly over to Kelsi's side and pulled her up by her wrists. "Go take a shower. You'll feel better."

Because Kelsi was tired, because she was confused, because she knew there was nothing she could deny Sharpay, she shuffled to the bathroom and shut the door behind her before pulling off the dress and sitting on the floor for what seemed like a very long time.

----

Sharpay answered the door, her hand in the process of tousling her damp hair. Michelle stood on the other side of the threshold, changed out of her formal clothes and somewhat puzzled. "You're still dressed up," she pointed out.

"Kelsi's in my shower, which should answer both your questions."

Michelle twisted her lip. "It wasn't going to be a question, anyway. I'll just use Sean's." She turned to go, but hesitated.

Sharpay sighed. "Go ahead, ask."

"No—nono, no, it's none of my business. Nope, none at all."

"Oh fucking hell, 'chelle, either ask or let me wait for my dessert in peace."

"Come play 'I Never' with us," Michelle said instead.

"What are we, twenty?"

"Promise you'll regret it in the morning."

Sharpay crossed her arms. "Enticing." Michelle raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't ask," she said in defense.

"You didn't." Sharpay gave an empty smile. "Why _aren't_ you using Sean's?"

"Hannah's in it. And Josh is in his."

Sharpay shook her hair out again and tilted her head. "Where's Logan showering?" Michelle blushed, and Sharpay smirked, "How nice of them to let me and Josh have our own rooms."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sharpay shrugged, and moved to close the door. "Hey, Sharpay." Michelle sighed. "I didn't ask."

Sharpay looked puzzled. "Yes...thank you. Now, let that mean whatever you intended it to mean. Good _night_, Michelle."

----

Kelsi emerged from the shower a little refreshed, wrapped in a Sharpay scented robe. Sharpay looked up from the bed, where she was digging her spoon into a bowl with one hand and balancing a glass of wine in the other.

Kelsi frowned in question. "As it turns out," Sharpay said, looked straight into Kelsi's eyes, "they stock the fridge with alcohol. Just in case of something, I guess." She held the half-filled spoon out. "It's really good." Kelsi reached past the spoon for the wine, and Sharpay surrendered it without protest.

After a few sips, she said, "You were right."

"I usually am." Sharpay paused to eat. "About what?" Kelsi inspected the tiramisu. It was the standard cream, lady fingers, espresso, cocoa powder and whatever else, only crammed into a glass bowl. A single serving dessert. She didn't know they existed in America anymore.

"I do feel better." Sharpay held out her hand for the wine, which Kelsi passed. "Sorry," she said, as Sharpay drank from the exact same spot as Kelsi.

"For what?" Kelsi almost answered, but Sharpay was looking at her with pure honesty, and she couldn't bring herself to be obvious.

"Oh. You're acting like it didn't happen."

"For your benefit," she replied, and passed the wine glass back.

"But I am."

"Your apology for nothing is duly noted. I would like to enjoy my dessert in peace now." They exchanged saliva via wine glass for a few minutes.

Kelsi, feeling awkward and slightly homesick, asked, "What are we doing?"

"Do we need to be doing anything?"

"I'm staying here for the night, I think. There needs to be a motive. A good one."

Sharpay stuck her spoon in her mouth and licked it in a way that shouldn't have been seductive but still was. "Everything you've done tonight was of your choice. I'm not responsible for it." Kelsi wanted to say that it was her fault, that it wasn't her fault that she could never say no, that everything Sharpay wanted was never a choice. But she knew that if Sharpay had asked, she would have stayed. Sharpay hadn't asked. She'd stayed anyway.

"Hey," she said, noticing something. "You've got a little cream on your lip."

Sharpay frowned. "I thought you didn't want to do R rated things, Nielsen."

"No," Kelsi insisted shyly, pointing to her own bottom lip. "It's right there." Sharpay ran her tongue over her lip. "No," she said sheepishly. "Still—no—here—" She cast around for a napkin. Finding no such thing on the room service tray, she reached out and steadied Sharpay's chin with her hand, brushing her thumb over the spot. Without thinking, she brought her thumb back and stuck it in her own mouth, realizing a second too late that she'd committed two errors, one of which was resolving not to actually have any of the tiramisu. (It _was_ good.)

Sharpay bit her lip and turned away, setting the tray on the floor. Kelsi felt herself flush, and she wondered why it had taken the whole day for that to happen. Bending back up, Sharpay pulled her legs into a cross and sat straight up, waiting for the next move. Kelsi took the time to notice the red lipgloss Sharpay wore, so smooth it looked painted, even after an entire night of singing and eating and talking. Liquid red.

Kelsi leaned forward on her hands, her ankles swiveling around so she could crawl over to Sharpay, who, for the first time since Kelsi had ever known her, swallowed hard and didn't say a word.

For once, Kelsi opened her mouth, and forgot about Bryan and Chad and Michelle and Broadway, pretended that it was freshman year and that Sharpay had just caught her in the theater bathroom, and slowly, carefully, like it was the first time, captured Sharpay's lips with her own. This had all been her choice, and she was going to choose all the way.

It wasn't a sentimental, friends again, look-there-it-is-just-lying-there-all-along-why-did-we-leave-it? kiss like the ones they'd shared earlier. It was hello and goodbye, thank you, and did you know I can do that now? yeah I changed over the years and it's funny but I think you have too.

When they had to come up for oxygen, Sharpay leaned back, and whispered, "We can't do this."

Kelsi stopped short. She'd almost had her closure, and she fought hard to remain calm as she asked, "Were we doing anything?"

"We can't. We can't because at some point in our lives, we're going to meet again. And I don't want something like this to hang over me while I win another Tony. And when I see you again and your lovely Bryan, I want him to be able to look at me and know that there was nothing scandalous about us." Sharpay's eyes fluttered closed, opening for only brief seconds at a time.

Kelsi suspected this was Sharpay's version of "not stringing her along." She didn't point out that mentioning future meetings was the very definition of "stringing along." Frustrated, she said, "There was something scandalous about us."

"God. Dammit, Kelsi, don't stand up to me now." Her lips painted too many words, and Kelsi leaned forward, watching because Sharpay couldn't see her watching.

"Say it again."

"What?" Perfect 'w,' opening wide and then collapsing into a crisp 't.'

"Just say my name."

"Kelsi." And all Kelsi wanted to do was watch that liquid red form roses in the air, but at the same time, Sharpay wasn't watching her, and she moved in closer and closer as Sharpay repeated, "Kelsi, Kelsi, Kelsi..."

----

Sharpay, for all her thinness and almost translucent skin in this fall climate, was warm, and whenever Kelsi stretched out away from Sharpay's body, her extremities met the cold covers and retracted. If she shifted back, she could feel Sharpay's arm folded up between their heads, her other hand resting on Kelsi's hip. And if she listened closely, she could hear Sharpay's even, not-asleep breath. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

Sharpay breathed deeper, and didn't say a word. Kelsi turned over so she was nose-to-nose with her. "I'm sorry," she repeated, and Sharpay's eyes opened. In the grey lighting, Kelsi couldn't distinguish pupil from iris, but looked back just the same.

"It's okay," Sharpay whispered back, and meant much more than forgiveness for something Kelsi hadn't done. For the second time that night and the second time Kelsi had known her, she swallowed before speaking. "Do you love me?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Kelsi said before she could tailor the answer. "No," she said, when she felt more certain. Sharpay's face fell, but she was smart enough to figure out that love had nothing to do with this.

"Do you hate me, then?"

Kelsi let her gaze flit over Sharpay's face, the wrinkles around her mouth and the tiny lines at her eyes, and wondered why she hadn't wanted to be Kristin Chenoweth. "No," she said candidly, "I don't think about you enough to hate you." Sharpay blinked deliberately, and Kelsi wondered if that was worse than just saying "yes."

Kelsi asked, "Is this scandalous?"

"Exceedingly," said Sharpay, and she smiled. "Does Bryan know?"

"I don't think he'd care."

"But does he know?"

"I think he thinks we're playing 'I Never.'"

"What are we, twenty?" Because laughing would be too loud, Kelsi settled for a low hum.

"Why did you find me?"

"Because I saw your name for the first time in many, many years." As thought Kelsi could have expected any other answer. "And it reminded me of you."

"I would think so," Kelsi said, and there was a look of sad pride around Sharpay's eyes.

"You should know that I went back to San Francisco. Once, to read with Michelle for an audition. I looked for you."

Kelsi felt relieved and also agitated, because she'd left by then. "Really?" She couldn't stand it if Sharpay was lying now.

"Yes. I couldn't let you end up in Paris, with all that cheese and chocolate and cigarettes."

For a few minutes, they lay there, staring at each other, and Kelsi noticed that she didn't remember Sharpay's features distinctly, still didn't know exactly what they looked like; Sharpay was so unique that she didn't need any comparisons for memory. She didn't look like anyone, she didn't act like anyone. She wondered if there was a Kelsi-shaped place in Sharpay's brain.

"Hey," she said. "Come have breakfast with me tomorrow morning."

"Maybe. Who's cooking?"

"Not me."

Sharpay twitched her fingers. "Clever. What will we have?"

"Omelets. French toast. Cinnamon...things." Kelsi purposefully left out pancakes, because she knew Sharpay hated them.

"Well." Sharpay paused to yawn. "I could always go for a good omelet. Does Bryan make good omelets?"

"Heavenly."

"Good." They stared at each other a little longer.

"Do you think I've changed?" Kelsi asked.

"Sure," Sharpay said. "You're more...assertive, I guess."

"You haven't changed," Kelsi said.

"No, I have. Your memory of me's just changed, too, that's all."

"Oh." A few more minutes passed.

"I thought you came to Seattle because it was the first flight out of San Francisco."

"I did."

"But you said you came because I would never tour here."

Kelsi thought back to what she'd said, remembered that Sharpay was trying to forget it, and explained, "I lied. I was angry."

Sharpay took a deep breath, and said, "I want to kiss you."

Recognizing the old game, Kelsi smiled, and replied, "You want to kiss me." It was repetition, it was theater, it was everything they had been and nothing they'd ever done. Kelsi gave up on trying to define the beginning and end of this.

"I want to kiss you."

"You want to kiss me."

"I want to kiss you."

"You want to kiss me." And Sharpay's lips moved in a grayscale world, no longer liquid red but still painting, painting, painting.

For the record, Kelsi didn't know who kissed who, and decided that maybe it was consensual on both parts this time, symbiotic and therapeutic.

It could have been everything she wanted, she realized, and Sharpay wouldn't have stopped her. For some reason, that made her sad. She held Sharpay's mouth against hers and tried to think of a happier time, but no such thing existed with someone like Sharpay Evans. And for some reason, that made her feel better.

----

Bryan stood next to Kelsi at the threshold of their apartment, watching Sharpay drive away, headed for the airport because she needed to get back to Chad before he went mad. Through breakfast, Sharpay told them that Chad was the team manager of the Knicks, and shrugged when asked what, exactly, he managed.

"That was..." Bryan started, when she was out of sight.

"Unreal," Kelsi finished.

"Very. Dream-like. Dream-come-true-like. How come you never told me you were friends with Sharpay Evans?"

"That was in high school." Kelsi turned around and went back to the kitchen, getting ready to clean up. She tried not to tell him anything scandalous. Bryan followed her and helped move everything to the sink.

"She's very..."

"Open?" Kelsi offered.

"Yeah." He started washing the dishes. "But really. Why didn't you tell me?"

Kelsi paused in her drying. "It was just a really...long time ago. I thought it was over."

-end-

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
Bryan...oh, Bryan. Personally, I think he suspects a Sharpay-like person in Kelsi's past, just not Sharpay specifically. As for Michelle's random cameo...it's all about perspective, and what else Sharpay might have done in between her encounters with Kelsi. Also, Michelle and Logan are the very definition of "non-sexual life partners," although I'm sure both of them wish to removed the "non." Thank you so much to everyone who's read this and stuck with it, because it's probably one of the longest, hardest things I've written. I think I spent more time reading other fiction and drawing inspiration than actual writing. And yes, this leaves room for one more meeting, though probably not of the same nature as this. 

Review!


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